Protesters set fire to their TV licenses in a sit-in at the BBC broadcasting centre in London yesterday evening, as complaints continued about the Corporation's refusal to show a Gaza charity appeal.

Christian denominations working through the ecumenical Action of Churches Together and the Catholic network Caritas are contributing short- and long-term aid to those hit by hurricanes and tropical storms recently.

Backed by Catholic aid agency CAFOD, two indigenous indians from Brazil have arrived in London this week to make an urgent plea to members of parliament for help to save their Amazon forest home.

Two new study guides on the Church and the environment are published this week.

Some 130 supporters of the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development (CAFOD)took to the saddle last weekend for a sponsored bike ride to raise money to support the aid agency's vital poverty-fighting work around the world.

A group of senior British development agencies, including Christian Aid and CAFOD, have said the humanitarian situation in Gaza is worse now than at any time since 1967 and have denounced Israel's "collective punishment" policy.

Manufacturing giant Tate & Lyle's decision to switch its retail cane sugars range to Fair Trade has been welcomed by development campaigners and church aid agencies - but the need to move the social justice agenda in economics remains.

With conflict rife and peace in peril, the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development (CAFOD) has called on member states of the European Union, especially France, to look re-examine their role in troubled Chad.

Electronics workers in Mexico are regularly subjected to denial of labour rights and dignity by companies - practices which needed to be challenged and changed, says a new report from the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development.

CAFOD and other UK-based development groups are critical of the North American Free Trade Agreement, finalised this month. It will impoverish Mexican workers, they say. Radical economic, trade and financial reform is needed.